Rui Costa

Rui Manuel Cesar Costa, usually referred to
simply as Rui Costa (born March 29, 1972 in
Lisbon), is a Portugal|Portuguese football
(soccer)|football player. He is a midfielder for
Italy|Italian club superpower A.C. Milan and the
Portugal national football team|Portuguese
national team. In 2004, he was named by Pelé to
the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living
football players.

Rui Costa is a member of the so-called "golden
generation" in Portuguese football. The Portuguese
under-20 national team won two successive Football
World Youth Championship|World Youth Cups in 1989
and 1991; Rui Costa and fellow FIFA 100 member
Luis Figo were stars on the 1991 team. With their
spectacular success at youth level, much was
expected of the Portuguese national team at senior
level as their galaxy of stars matured. However,
they did not win a major international tournament
at senior level, although the last several members
helped lead Portugal to its first-ever major final
at 2004 European Football Championship|Euro 2004,
losing to Greece national football team|Greece.

Prior to Milan, Rui Costa played for Benfica and
ACF Fiorentina|Fiorentina. On 3 July 2004 he
announced he was leaving the Portuguese national
team.

== Titles earned ==
*UEFA Champions League (03)
*Serie A (04)
*Italy's SuperCup (96)
*Portugal|Portuguese League (94)
*Portugal's Cup (93)
*Coppa Italia (96, 03)
*FIFA World Youth Championship (89, 91)